What's your idea of a Thanksgiving Feast? Perhaps it's all about stuffed turkeys, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies, and some wine, all of these shared with friends and family. But have you ever wondered what the Pilgrims eat during the first Thanksgiving?
The Smithsonian Magazine provides us some ideas. According to an article published on November 21, 2011, the Pilgrims shared their first meal with the Wampanoag sometime in 1621 in the Plymouth Colony. They then dined on wild fowl including turkey, as well as porridge and bread made from corn. Perhaps the two things you haven't guessed are venison and seafood.
But how did the historians figure this out? The truth is information is hard to come by. It's a mixture of using very few documents that have survived through the many years and digging much deeper into history.
For example, among the remaining documents that refer to the first Thanksgiving, a letter from Edward Winslow, an English leader, mentioned that as soon as the harvest came, the governor then immediately tasked four men for fowling, and they had killed too many of these fowls. The Indians who stayed with them during the feast that lasted for more than 2 days also contributed by killing five deer. Aside from waterfowl, they also dined on venison and wild turkeys, as well as Indian corn.
Meanwhile, through a more comprehensive research including studying the pollen samples and dozens of cookbooks and gardens that talk about the period, culinarian Wall discovered that while turkey was served, it wasn't the highlight of the first Thanksgiving. The distinction went to a wildfowl, which could be either a duck or a goose. She also added another possible poultry in the feast: passenger pigeons, which were incredibly abundant during the 1620s. Depending on the size, the birds may have been boiled or roasted in the spit. For flavors, these birds may be stuffed with certain herbs and onion.
Aside from meat, the colonists may have also served seafood like mussels and eels.